David Simon’s The Deuce could be the porn industry’s answer to The Wire

Gbenga Akinnagbe has lifted the lid on what to expect from the highly-anticipated HBO show.

James Franco's next big role David Simon has cast the 127 Hours actor in two roles. Image Fox

David Simon’s highly anticipated return to HBO, The Deuce, will focus on the rise of the porn industry in 1970s and 1980s New York and is already drawing comparison with The Wire.

Starring James Franco, Maggie Gyllenhall and Emily Reader, the show comes hot on the heels of Simon’s critically acclaimed six-hour miniseries Show Me A Hero.

Details on the new series have, so far, remained scarce but, speaking to Entertainment Weekly, one of the stars, Gbenga Akinnagbe, lifted the lid on what fans can expect.

“It’s a precursor to the porn industry with the culture of all the pimps, prostitutes, and bar owners of Hell’s Kitchen and how that kind of devolved or evolved into the early days of porn,” he said.

Akinnagbe previously worked with Simon on The Wire and it’s likely that the writer’s eye for authenticity will see The Deuce imbued with the same gritty realism and eye for detail as his previous work.

Down to The Wire Lester Freeman follows the money, with the help of McNulty (Dominic West).

It could also represent the biggest role of Franco’s career to date with the 127 Hours actor set to take on the twin parts of Vincent and Frankie Martino, brothers and mobsters who work in the volatile, yet lucrative, arena of sex workers operating around Time Square in the 70s and 80s.

With the series set to chart the legitimisation of sex work, it could prove to be a dissection of the industry similar to The Wire’s series-by-series deconstruction of narcotics distribution in the US.

Akinnagbe, who has already seen the first episode, reckons fans will love the end result.

“It’s great, you know David Simon and George Pelecanos, amazing writers,” he told EW.

“So I’m excited for that and not just because I’m in it. I saw the first episode a month or so ago and it looks so good.”

No air date has yet to be determined, with the show expected to arrive at some point in 2017.